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This was one of those books that has you rooting for the team and not the players/characters. I found the world building very engaging with the fables and legends a strong foundation.

While the world building was it's true strength everything else felt lacking. I never cared for any of the characters are their building relationships. They all felt just like pawn pieces moving across the board. and never fleshed out for me to care about them one way or another. I hope the author re-visits this world someday as I am curious about some characters that didn't get enough screentime .

The mystery is on a slow boil as your introduced to Skye whose life is stuck in a dead-end then she makes a deal, a easy deal that would get her money and a new life. That is until the deal ends up with someone dead and Skye stuck in the middle and running out of time to find a murderer. As everything slowly unravels for Skye, who you feel a deep empathy for, even if she made a really crappy choice. I always hoped she be okay in the end. Cook does put the reader through an emotional ringer as everything starts to add and and then! -She hits you again with another shocker that left me guessing if it solved everything or just another secret.

I can't say enough great things about this book- only to read it for yourself!

Instead of the carnival coming to town, it's the Gambler's Den, a casino that brings lights and laughter to the barren desert towns. Franco the ringleader that gathers a crew of fire eaters and thieves. Until their luck hits a road block in a kingdom's capital city where law is held in an iron fist and the crew of the Gambler's den must use all their tricks to get out.

I really enjoyed the small bit of the world of the Den of Shadows, you have a huge divide between the rich and the poor. The Gambler's Den tries to stay on the grey line as they try to make a buck. The trouble I had was you only really get glimpses of everything from the world to the characters. You never get anything to deep even with our main crew. This made it an easy and fun read and hopefully this just the foundation to more for the series.